Help:Editing
This help section is a combination of the Wikipedia page on editing as well as information on formating specific to pages for OABSA. OABSA is a wiki, which means that anyone can easily edit any unprotected page and have those changes posted immediately to that page. To request a change to a protected page, contact OABSA Founder 0A164. Editing a Wikipedia page is very easy. Simply click on the "edit this page" tab at the top of a wiki page. This will bring you to a new page with a text box containing the editable text of the original page. If you just want to experiment, please do so in the sandbox; not here. You should write a short edit summary in the small field below the edit-box. You may use shorthand to describe your changes, as described in the legend, and when you have finished, press the Show preview button to see how your changes will look. You can also see the difference between the page with your edits and the previous version of the page by pressing the Show changes button. If you're happy with what you see, press the Save page button. Your changes will immediately be visible to other Wikipedia users. You can also click on the "Discussion" tab to see the corresponding talk page, which contains comments about the page from other Wikipedia users. Click on the "+'''" tab to add a new section, or edit the page in the same way as an article page. You should remember to sign your messages on talk pages and some special-purpose project pages, but you should '''not sign edits you make to regular articles. In page histories, the MediaWiki software keeps track of which user makes each change. Tips on editing Wikipedia articles Always use a neutral point of view, as Wikipedia is not a soapbox. Cite your sources, so others can check and extend your work. Most Wikipedia articles currently lack good references, and this contributes to be Wikipedia's single greatest criticism—that it is not a reliable source. Please help by researching online and print resources to find references for the article you are working on, then cite them in proper form, and consider in-text citation for contentious facts. There is no consensus on the best way to do that, but anything is better than nothing. Link to your article from other articles. After making a new page, it's a good idea to use the What links here feature to check the pages that already link to your new page. Make sure that all the links are referring to your page in the right context. You should also use the search feature to find occurrences of the title of your new page—and possible variants thereof—so that you can create appropriate links. Minor edits See also Wikipedia:Minor edit When editing a page, a logged-in user can mark that edit as being "minor". Minor edits generally mean spelling corrections, formatting, and minor rearrangement of text. It is possible to hide minor edits when viewing the recent changes. Marking a significant change as a minor edit is considered bad behavior, especially when it involves the deletion of some text. If you accidentally mark an edit as minor, you should edit the source once more, mark it major (or, rather, ensure that the check-box for "This is a minor edit" is not checked), and, in the summary, state that the previous change was a major one. Wiki markup The wiki markup is the syntax system you can use to format a Wikipedia page. In the left column of the table below, you can see what effects are possible. In the right column, you can see how those effects were achieved. In other words, to make text look like it looks in the left column, type it in the format you see in the right column. You may want to keep this page open in a separate browser window for reference. If you want to try out things without danger of doing any harm, you can do so in the Sandbox. Try opening the Sandbox in a separate window or tab and keeping this page open for reference. Examples Links and URLs Images Only images that have been uploaded to Wikipedia can be used. To upload images, use the . You can find the uploaded image on the . |} See the Wikipedia's image use policy as a guideline used on Wikipedia. For further help on images, including some more versatile abilities, see the topic on Extended image syntax. Character formatting (see also: Chess symbols in Unicode) Table of Contents At the current status of the wiki markup language, having at least four headers on a page triggers the TOC to appear in front of the first header (or after introductory sections). Putting __TOC__ anywhere forces the TOC to appear at that point (instead of just before the first header). Putting anywhere forces the TOC to disappear. See also compact TOC for alphabet and year headings. Tables There are two ways to build tables: *in special Wiki-markup (see ) *with the usual HTML elements: , , or . For the latter, and a discussion on when tables are appropriate, see Wikipedia:How to use tables. Variables (See also ) NUMBEROFARTICLES is the number of pages in the main namespace which contain a link and are not a redirect, in other words number of articles, stubs containing a link, and disambiguation pages. CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN is the genitive (possessive) grammatical form of the month name, as used in some languages; CURRENTMONTHNAME is the nominative (subject) form, as usually seen in English. In languages where it makes a difference, you can use constructs like to convert a word from the nominative case to some other case. For example, }} means the same as . Templates The MediaWiki software used by Wikipedia has support for templates. This means standardized text chunks (such as boilerplate text) can be inserted into articles. For example, typing will appear as "This article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it." when the page is saved. See Wikipedia:Template messages for the complete list. Other commonly used templates are: for disambiguation pages, for spoiler warnings and like an article stub but for a section. There are many subject-specific stubs for example: , , and . For a complete list of stubs see WP:WSS/ST. A simple wiki table looks like this: Hiding the edit links Insert __NOEDITSECTION__ into the document to suppress the edit links that appear next to every section header. More information on editing wiki pages You may also want to learn about: * * Informal tips on contributing to Wikipedia * Editing tasks in general at the Wikipedia:Editing FAQ * Rename pages boldly, at Wikipedia:How to rename (move) a page * Preferred layout of your article, at Guide to layout (see also Wikipedia:Boilerplate text) * Style conventions in the Wikipedia:Manual of Style * An article with annotations pointing out common Wikipedia style and layout issues, at Wikipedia:Annotated article * General policies in Wikipedia:Policies and guidelines * Wikipedia:Naming conventions for how to name articles themselves * Help on editing very large articles * If you are making an article about something that belongs to a group of objects (a city, an astronomical object, a Chinese character...) check if there is a WikiProject on the group and try to follow its directions explicitly. * *Mediawiki user's guide to editing *Wikipedia:MediaWiki * Finally, for a list of articles about editing Wikipedia consult Wikipedia:Style and How-to Directory. How to edit a page How to edit a page am:Help:Editing ang:Wikipedia:How to edit a page